New Video Sharing Offering From H.P.

Hewlett-Packard (H.P.) has recently released a public beta of it's new video file sharing service called Gabble. H.P. has made the service so that videos posted are only viewable by people invited to your group, in contrast to YouTube and other sites that default to publicly viewable. According to the NYTimes Bits blog, it is hoped by H.P. that the service "...will appeal to families uncomfortable making their home videos public and to businesses that want to use videos as a collaboration tool."

Gabble is part of the company's plans for trying out a host of in the cloud services as it searches for a hit. “If they go viral and take off quickly, then we will support them,” according to Shane Robison, H.P.’s chief technology officer, during a recent interview. “If they don’t, we’ll take them down pretty quickly.”

The Innoventions Dream Home

Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif. unveils it's latest attraction today, the Innoventions Dream Home a collaborative effort by Disneyland, Microsoft, HP, Life|ware and home-builder Taylor Morrison. Located in Tomorrowland, the Dream Home delivers on Walt Disney’s vision for showcasing cutting-edge technologies that make life better and easier. “We’re constantly visualizing how tomorrow’s software will transform how we’ll work, play and communicate,” says Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer at Microsoft. “By partnering with Disneyland, we can show people how technology can enrich our lives today, and offer a glimpse of the technologies that will revolutionize homes in the future.”

According to this Microsoft Press Release, the Innoventions Dream Home features such innovations as:

	Magic Mirror: A mirror projects different clothes, accessories and hairstyles onto each family member’s image when they stand before it. The clothes not only morph to the contours of the body, but also sway as the person in front of the mirror moves.
	Kitchen of Your Dreams: The kitchen recognizes ingredients as a family member sets them on the counter, suggesting recipes for those items and providing instructions once a recipe is selected.
	Story Time: Visit the child’s room to be transported to Neverland. Read “Peter Pan” aloud to absorb a full multimedia experience, as cues in the story set off lights, sounds, colors and video.

Dell Entering Netbook Market

A BBC article citing Gizmodo as a source is reporting that Dell is about to enter the Netbook market, a market that is being driven in larger part by the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program, the success of the Asus Eee PC and the availability of low-cost and low power consumption chips designed just for such devices. "I've not seen energy like this from our customers in a long, long time," said Intel chief executive Paul Otellini to The Associated Press.

All of the usual suspects seem to be lining up to enter the market for netbooks and Dell is no exception, it would appear. Microsoft recently announced it would be selling XP for sub-notebooks at a price of just $32, keeping the OS alive to stave off competition from linux. HP and Acer are both coming out with low power machines and Asus believes it will sell almost two million linux powered Eee PCs in the first half of this year. While I've seen the OLPC laptop, and it's cute, I'm not apt to purchase one for my own use. The Eee PC, and potentially others like it, are a little more appealing for certain applications however... such as blogging on the go!

Dell, HP And Lenovo Keeping XP Alive?

Dell, HP and Lenovo are reportedly keeping XP alive by exploiting loopholes in Vista licensing agreements. Under the terms of a "downgrade license" for the Business and Ultimate versions of Windows Vista, PC manufacturers are keeping XP flowing out the door. According to the BBC "... PC is logged as a Vista sale and, in effect, is being sold with an unused option to upgrade to the newer operating system". It will be interesting to see if this constitutes enough interest in XP to keep the OS alive. HP apparently is using the "downgrade" option to keep selling XP with some models until 30 July 2009 which exceeds Microsoft's deadline on the product by a year. The sales are however being considered Vista sales and have contributed to a reported 140 million licenses of that OS being sold to date. Your move Mr. Ballmer...

Holodeck technology a reality in Edmonton?

Researchers at the University of Alberta's computer science department have partnered with Hewlett-Packard, and Edmonton's TRLabs, and are working on 3-D virtual reality technology that they say resembles the holodeck on the Enterprise or Voyager. The application is meant to be more of a high definition video conference than the virtual holiday's enjoyed by the crew of Voyager, but the researchers say the technology "will be so realistic users will be able to see an eye twitch or a bead of sweat". So much for racking up the air miles on the company's dime... CBC story here.